Last Christmas saw us pondering the rumblings of the subprime crisis emerging in the USA, but so much has happened since then! We have had a global economic meltdown, an upheaval in so many areas of our lives, a plague of economic uncertainty sweep the world, and incredible enthusiasm for life and business from some very surprising people!

The Economy, that basket case of a thing that we hope recovers, but can’t help grabbing as much of it as we can for ourselves… At the moment, there are literally millions of Australians spending between them $10,000,000,000 of our savings account as a nation, on Christmas presents. It’s an idea the governments around the world had, and embraced wholeheartedly by our own, as a way to stimulate national economies, especially our own… Let’s take a step back, before we look at this one.

Our Australian economy is really in a very good situation, when you compare us with other global economies. That doesn’t mean to say it’s good, but it’s streets ahead of the US and most European economies. The Sub-Prime crisis in the US was a huge indicator of deeper issues, which eventually bankrupted banks and major corporations and stalled governments and economies. The result was that those power mad bureaucracies around the world realised they had cooked the goose that laid the golden eggs, and now had to give it serious attention if it was to survive, let alone lay another egg!

Fortunately, this time they pulled together, instead of going to war (mostly), and as a result, we have had a number of meetings between the superpower government leaders, all realising they had better rein in their stupid and careless governance strategies and start looking at what the real problems are. The economic stimulus packages are a start, and do address ONE of the problems.

The problem they address is the one of cash flowing around the economies. However, as always, this works to the benefit of the businesses only, and the Australian consumers, always at the end of the line, will end up with Christmas dinners on December 25, 2008 and nothing of substance by January 1, 2009. It’s a promotion of consumerism, rather than a solution to the economic problems.

It’s like when your car is running poorly. If it needs a tune up, then a set of spark plugs will make a difference. However, if it needs a new engine, then those spark plugs might help a little, but they don’t address the real problem! This is what is happening, with the ten billion dollar economic stimulus package. It’s like a very expensive set of plugs, when what we need is a new economic engine!

Can we have one? Yes, and in this website, I explain exactly how it can be done. I have made a submission to the Australian Taxation Review Commission, meeting right now, with my solutions. You can look at them here on http://www.politicalguts.com/id5.html. On this website, I actually have around 35 different policies written, that could change our nation for the better. I urge you to take a look – there’s a lot of reading, and then take action where you can – I made step-by-step suggestions on how you can be part of the solutions at the end of each policy page.

The danger of the current approach is that when this short term ten billion dollar fix runs out, we don’t have many more ten billion dollar notes to spend, and we will still not have made the structural changes necessary!

We have also relied very heavily on the minerals and resources Australia is rich in, for us to ‘trade our way out’ of the problem. That’s OK too, up to a point. We don’t want our beautiful country to become the worlds mining pit, and nothing else! While once we had thriving small businesses and manufacturers within Australia, now we have country towns with empty streets, shop fronts and business centres, and industrial estates suitable only for movie sets! There is an argument that the Lima Declaration signed in 1975 was the start of the rot. Many people think this was an act of treason by the then Foreign Affairs Minister, as it formalised the start of the export of Australian small business to South East Asia, with nothing for Australia in return. Read about it here: http://www.politicalguts.com/id40.html and see what you think!

Ideally, if we had to stimulate our economy with a cash injection, rather than the total taxation reform we so urgently need, then stimulating the regional centres would be a better and longer term solution. The idle resources in regional areas are vast, and it’s a terrible pity to see them, people, buildings and dreams lying idle, while money is pumped into buying sparkplugs for an engine needing a transplant. You just can’t fine tune structural change into a problem, you have to actually deal with the problem, and then fine tune the solution!

However, not everyone thinks it’s all bad: Warren Buffett, the gentlemen who, as the most famous and successful investor in the world, and who takes turn about with Bill Gates as the richest man on the planet, saw fit to invest about as much into the market recently as our government gave away to the Australian public to spend on Christmas presents! He invested billions, because he thinks it is a great time to be an investor, when the market prices are low and yields are at record highs, he is investing like there would never be a better time for it. And maybe that is why he is the richest man in the world – his is an opinion I would take!

Some more good news? ABSOLUTELY!

Last September, the outgoing Federal Government made some structural changes to the tangled mess of law and regulation that makes up our Australian Superannuation program. As you know, everyone in Australia is committed to contributing 9% of their salary to a complying superannuation fund, to prepare for retirement. We know that with a decade or so, our budget, unless we make the structural changes I mentioned, will be unable to pay for pensions. Hence, superannuation.

However, super funds went backwards this year and last, by between 20% and 50%! The structural changes over the last couple of years included scrapping of RBLs, meaning essentially you can now have as much super as you can grow in your portfolio. It also saw the introduction in September 2007 of a rule change enabling Self Managed Super Funds to borrow to invest, in for example, residential investment property! This simple strategy alone, depending on your personal circumstances, could enable you to add hundreds of thousands of dollars to your super fund by your retirement! At last, some really super news! You can check out the details of those changes here: http://www.afplanning.net/id9.html.

But don’t rush intoit, the team at Allied Financial Planning and I have been working for most of this year to get a turnkey investment program established for you, to enable you to walk in, assess your situation, and embark on this journey to wealth, in virtually one stop! The whole strategy, including a financial plan and investment strategy, property and all the legal entities can be initiated through Allied Financial Planning, through their various networked business associates, to streamline your investment experience. There will be an advertisement on Channel NBN9 Gold Coast over the next two months, to announce the launch of this program, the first of its kind in Australia! Look out for it, or if you are from elsewhere in Australia, go to the website and let us know you are interested from there.

Finally, we now look forward to the New Year of 2009… It has arrived! This could and should be the year of amazing opportunity for us, if only we embrace the challenges and power through them. There will be the doomsayers, crying danger, and telling us how bad it is… Probably the morning TV shows are the worst, with so called economists now TV hosts using their quasi qualifications to enhance their ratings and drive confidence to record lows. I for one would love to see them have to abide by the regulations that other financial advisers are required to follow, or face the penalties set for giving financial advice – especially very poor financial advice!

If we ignore those ratbag press sensationalists and use common sense, investment opportunities surround us, and it’s worth taking a closer look at them, in conjunction with your financial advisory team. This could be the year that your fortunes took off and created an incredible future, or it may be the year you condemned yourself to poverty. The choice is there for every person in Australia, and in many economies globally. I urge you to think and act in the interests of your future and your families’, as you look forward to New Years Resolutions, in a few days time.

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year in 2009.